Two words which can certainly be said to be central to discussions on human and family life are: love and life. While life flows from love, life interprets the meaning of love. The issue of life is so central because, it is that involves the whole human person. In it, a human person is essentially defined and the question of human dignity is implied. In it too involves a number of moral issues. The question of life in human and family life begins with the discussion: where does life begin since it is argued that all human life is sacred? Again, when can someone be said to be the subject of human dignity?
Hardly is there a serious contest as to when life begins but the conflict however arises when moral issues like Abortion are in question. A large part of the scientific community as well as orthodox Christianity and more dogmatically, Catholicism, agrees that human life begins at conception. Positively, conception takes place after fertilization which usually takes place 24 hours after intercourse. So, God at fertilization breathes a living soul into the zygote and unquestionably it becomes a human person (cf Gen 2:7, 1:26). He thus becomes a subject of all human rights, even though unborn. The ground for establishing the beginning of life is because of the alarming and infectious wave of modern humanistic trends which tend to violate the unborn person as merely a tissue which could be discarded and the rights of the physical human person has been emphasized to the detriment of the unborn human person. And so, it becomes expedient to establish claims even from science to dwarf this misgiving.
A scientific textbook called “Basics of Biology” gives five characteristics of living things; these five criteria are found in all modern elementary scientific textbooks: (1) Living things are highly organized. (2) All living things have an ability to acquire materials and energy. (3) All living things have an ability to respond to their environment. (4). All living things have an ability to reproduce. (5) All living things have an ability to adapt. According to this elementary definition of life, life begins at fertilization, when a sperm unites with an oocyte.
From this moment, the being is highly organized, has the ability to acquire materials and energy, has the ability to respond to his or her environment, has the ability to adapt, and has the ability to reproduce (the cells divide, then divide again, etc., and barring pathology and pending reproductive maturity has the potential to reproduce other members of the species). Non-living things do not do these things. Even before the mother is aware that she is pregnant, a distinct, unique life has begun his or her existence inside her. It must be stated too that that life is unquestionably human. This is because the distinguishing marks or what is called “Genetic imprint” of the human person; the DNA is already established and in fact the sex is determined. And so, that being is an individual. A person does not become an individual when he ceases to grow or born and not even death ceases the individuality of a person. This being so, life must therefore be conceived in the continuum: Before birth- birth- death- after death. So, life becomes one single garment that goes on through different phases. Personhood and individuality thus are not limited to the phases between birth and death.
Science too has established the following facts about the growth of the unborn child. Eighteen days after conception the baby's heart is beating. During the first month the baby grows to 10,000 times its size at conception. It moves six weeks after conception though the mother does not yet feel the movements. At eight weeks, every part of the body found in an adult is already in the baby. At eleven weeks after conception the baby has finger-prints and the finger nails are growing. At twelve weeks the baby's lips open and close. It can wrinkle its forehead, raise its eyes, turns its head, smile and frown. At sixteen weeks it reacts to sound, sucks and swallows, may get hiccups, yawns and stretches. Although moving since six weeks, at eighteen weeks the mother now feels the movements. The baby pushes with its feet and head to exercise and tone its developing muscles and also sucks its thumb. Its toenails, hair, eyebrows, fringe of eyelashes on closed eyelids are growing. At twenty weeks the baby sleeps and wakes and is fully able to hear. At twenty four weeks the baby may possibly dream and can make a fist and punch it against its mother. By twenty-five weeks the baby in the womb has the ability to hear like that of an adult and can discern the moods and attitudes of its mother
The consequent implication of this claim and fact is that the unborn child since he is also a human being, is a subject of equal rights and obligations of a viable human person and the first is that it has the right to life and the right to live. For one to destroy such life at the expense of human pride would be setting a standard for the vulnerable to be destroyed. Every human being is vulnerable at different points in life and we can enjoy the protection we may crave for and indeed help to safeguard the extinction of the human species, if we protect the vulnerable ones who depend on us for protection. To therefore maim the unborn and in fact kill it would be a case of destroying the institution of humanity at a certain level; a case of self-immolation. More so, against this back drop, any law, behavior or act that is opposed to the protection of the right of the human person is thus a counterproductive one which should not be obeyed or respected at least and should at most be condemned. This truth forbids to mothers who are pregnant whether knowingly or unknowingly to apply any such thing in the form of drug or the like; to disrupt the growth of the viable foetus. Any such act is a case of committing murder and in fact the transgressing of the fifth commandment of the Decalogue: “thou shalt not kill” (cf. Exodus 20:13). Also all those who by complicity or association directly collaborate or advice the direct killing of an unborn child are guilty of the same sin and liable to the consequences of this grievous offence as killing always elicit. It is along this boarder that Capital Punishment is condemned and a law which should be abrogated from every civil penal code as a form of penalty or deterrence. This brings us to the question of death.
Just as we have no right to take away one's life, because it is a gift, so also we cannot take another's on any condition. The questions of life and death condition our moral options. Man does not enjoy the exclusive reserve to pass someone for death even when the person is suffering from grave irrecoverable ailing conditions. It is similarly when a person has been certified lifeless or dead can we treat it as a cadaver that it has become. If not, it becomes a grave sin and one opposed to human dignity if we treat someone who still has the breath of God in him and so recognized as “image of God” (imago Dei) with contempt or any violation that suggests such.
Death is usually conceived by modern science in three forms: traditional heart-lung failure, whole brain death and higher-brain death. Knowing when a person is no longer alive is a fundamental problem when it comes to medical situations like organ transplantation. Deciding when a person is no longer alive also has significant consequences for just what we consider a "person" to be. One can destroy life by issues which threaten the comfort of life, for example: malnutrition, carelessness, abuse, theft, hatred, discrimination. Also, our treatment of the sick and aged reflect whether we have value for life or promote the culture of death. Any desecration to life is a crime that God will bring to judgment. (Gen 9:5-6)
In sum, we must recall that God is the author of life and the protection of life is not just a respect for the dignity of the human person but also for the presence of God. In contrast, the devil is the author of death because by tempting men to sin he was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). Thus anyone who kills by whatever form professes leaning for the devil as its agent. St. John clearly states the triple-fold mission of the devil as: to steal, to kill and to destroy (John 10:10) but lo, Christ brings life and only those who are for life would protect, promote and preserve this life.
No comments:
Post a Comment